Suddenly I See
by ritamej
Summary: As a con goes wrong, Nate realizes something he knew all along, but was to blind to see.


First Leverage fic ever so be kind. I'm a Nate/Parker fan, so if you do not like it, you shouldn't be here.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, though I would love to.

…

W-Whoa whoa! Man what did I tell you about touching? You're lucky you didn't disconnect the live feed. Show some respect to the equipment." Hardison paused looking at the Mastermind. "Seriously Nate I know your worried, but she'll be fine. I mean this is Parker we're talking about here. She can do things like you wouldn't believe. I remember-"

"Hardison!" Nate's frustrated voice cut through whatever the hacker was about to say.

He ran a hand through his messy curls, and let out a sigh. He knew it wasn't the Hacker's fault but his nerves were already shot. "See if you can get the camera at a different angle."

Hardison looked from his boss to the computer screen in front of him. He desperately wished he believed his own words, because the truth was the situation was not looking good. He typed on some keys trying to adjust the camera's angle but it was proving futile.

"I'm trying Nate but Parker only got around to placing the one and this man is blocking half the room from view. It's impossible to see what's happening in there." His voice trailed off and he cringed when he saw Nate's already tightened fist clench further.

"It's not looking good from this side either. Armed ex-army snipers rangers blocking all possible entries and exits. I don't know how I'm getting past them Nate without getting shot." Eliot's gruff voice cut through the earbuds.

Nate closed his eyes and forced himself to relax. He knew it wouldn't do any of them good to be worked up now, but damnit if he didn't wish he had some Irish whiskey at the moment.

"Okay here's what we're going to do. Hardison you see that mirror right there? See if you can zoom in and clear the pixels enough so we can see what's going on in that room. Eliot wait for Sophie. She'll hopefully be able to distract the snipers long enough for you to get in and out with Parker."

"I'm on it Nate but it could take a few minutes to clear up the image resolution enough." The Hacker said, as his fingers flew across the keyboard; eyes locked in a concentrated gaze.

…

"Eliot I'm on my way now. I just slipped past Andrews and am heading in your direction." The Grifter's voice cut through.

"Alright Sophie from what Eliot has said, they obviously have training so don't try to sneak up on them. Try fake being drunk and go on from there." From her end she nodded her head to herself at Nate's words. Mentally preparing, she grabbed a flute of champagne and proceeded to stumble towards Eliot. As she approached she let a few tears cascade down her cheeks. They quickly grew into trembling sobs as she collapsed in front of the snipers.

She heard them lowering their weapons and peeked through her hands enough to see them approaching with Eliot shadowing them.

"Miss are you alright?" The closest one asked, before kneeling in front of her. Sophie shook her head, bursting into more tears as she told them how she caught her husband of fifteen years with the whore from the country club in the bedroom she had mistaken for the bathroom.

Eliot rolled his eyes at her dramatics, coming up to the door where Parker was being held. Testing the knob he found it to be unlocked and proceeded to cautiously open the door an inch.

There were three men altogether and Parker lying in the middle bleeding from her head where the brutes smashed their guns into earlier. Seeing her hurt made Eliot want to recklessly go in there and get her out but he knew he couldn't. Two of the brutes had their guns targeted at Parker's body and the third was monitoring the computer screen.

"Hardison," Eliot hissed to the earbud, "There are three men all looking to be from the Russian mob. Parker's in the middle but she's out cold and bleeding from the head."

…

Inside the van, outside of Erik Andrews's house, Hardison closed his eyes and started whispering a prayer that Parker would be alright. Nate who was sitting next to him felt his insides grow cold. His eyes harden as he listened to what Eliot was saying.

'Please be okay momma.' The Hacker thought finishing his prayer; he resumed his focus on the screen in front of him. The last of the magnified pixels where complete so they were able to see a very graining outline of what was occurring in the room.

"I got a visual Eliot." Hardison's voice cut through the Hitter's internal musings of the fastest way to get in and out without any of them getting shot at.

From his seat, Nate stared at the motionless body of Parker. He could barely make out her form from the crappy quality but seeing her there, lying helplessly in a room filled with the Russian mob made his heart stop. 'Snap out of it.' he told himself. He tried blocking out Sophie's crying and his own thoughts and instead tried focusing on the situation.

…

It had started off as an easy con, consisting of a rich corrupted senator. Only they found out he was making under the table deals as an arms dealer and had in return caused a whole lot of US bills to mysteriously disappear.

The money in question had been a donation to a children's hospital, but the financier in charge of processing the money got a nasty surprise when she found out the money had never been wired to the account they had set up.

Turns out Andrews had one of his people who worked at the hospital swipe the information from the client's desk and used it to hack into the account transferring the money to a private one that was untraceable from the police.

He left no evidence behind, which caused the client to be accused of theft and fired from her job and arrested. Andrews went walking free without ever being a suspect; and the victim's husband came to them seeking help.

…

Nate shook his head clearing his mind. He straighten up in his chair bringing his hand to rest on his forehead.

"Eliot do whatever you can to get Parker. Sophie try luring the sniper into taking you back to the house, making sure you get there safely." he leaned back into his chair, eyes glued to the screen.

…

Sophie took a shaking breath asking the snipers if they would escort her back to the house. Accepting the offered hand, she allowed herself to be sandwiched between the two men. Letting out a watery laugh at their offer to shoot her husband for her.

Eliot watched them go before mentally counting to three. He kicked the door open, ducking when the sound of gunshots fired through the air. He went for the man that was blocking the camera and punched him in the stomach. While he was doubled over Eliot grabbed the other man by his throat, squeezing down. He saw the third man turn from the monitors and reaching to draw his gun. Eliot through the man he held into the third man causing them both to fall and get entangled in each other's limbs. The first guy got up and went to attack Eliot from behind only to stumble. The Hitter turned around to see the man tripping over Parker's feet and her flashing him a weak albeit mischievous grin.

The fighting continued for a short while until the last Russian fell to the floor. Eliot walked over to where Parker was and bent down to scoop her up. As he was adjusting his grip on her the sound of a gun going off made him freeze. Parker let out a choking sound and he glanced down to see if she had been hit. Eliot's eyes widen as he noticed the amount of blood pouring from her brachial artery.

"P-Parker! You need to stay awake." Eliot's voice shook as he spoke when he noticed her starting to close her eyes. She tried to open her mouth to say something but it came out as a whisper too low for him to hear. He leaned down more pressing his ear to her mouth to catch her words. "...Nate...love...afraid...die." was all he could understand.

…

From inside the van both men froze as the sound of the gun went off. The camera was now showing the rest of the room as the man that had been blocking it moved out of the way.

They watched in horror as they saw Eliot looking towards the Thief's arm where a conspicuous amount of blood was steady dripping onto the floor creating a puddle. Neither could make out the words she spoke, but from the expression of the Hitter's face they knew the situation was not good.

"Alright the bullet most likely pierced the brachial artery, Hardison pull up in front of the garage. It's the closest to the room we're in. Sophie time to go. We need to get Parker to the hospital as quickly as we can."

None of them had to ask what the odds were that she'd make it with the amount of blood she was losing. The only luck they had was the hospital was less than ten minutes away from the senator's house.

…

Sophie was the first to arrive, dropping to her knees and moving things off the floor so they would be able to lay the Thief down. The two men sitting in the chairs remained frozen, each stuck in their own thoughts.

Eliot entering the van jolted them into action. Hardison helping Sophie clear the floor enough and Nate looked for something to keep pressure of the wound with.

"Here man." Eliot handed him his bandana. The Mastermind nodded thanks, and focused his attention on the woman who lie bleeding on the floor.

"Come on Parker. You're going to be just fine." The words sounded hollow even to his ears. He wrapped the cloth tight around the wound ignoring the crimson that began staining his hands.

"N-Nate." Parker's voice was barely there, but he still heard it. His shaking hand tighten on the cloth causing the Thief to wince.

"Come on Parker you going to be okay. We're not going to let you die. Hardison, drive already she's losing too much blood." The panic in his voice made the Hacker jump into action.

…

They made it in under five minutes with Hardison breaking the legal speeding limit. Nate grabbed Parker into his arms and motioned for Eliot to open the doors. "Hardison stay here, call the police and say you heard gunshots coming from Andrews's house. The Russians should still be there so they can take the fall. I don't doubt Andrews would have left when the shots first started. Eliot what is the possibility that bullet is still in her?"

"Pretty high considering the angle it entered." The Hitter answered placing two ID's in Nate and Parker's pants pockets. He grabbed a ring from his own pocket and placed it on the Thief's ring finger. At the Mastermind's raised brows, he replied in a defensive tone;

"What? You never know when these things will come in handy. Plus this way you'll be able to find out the status of how she's doing when they get her out of surgery."

…

Walking into a hospital was always a challenge for Nate. He recalled memories of his son's death, lying on a cot and watching as the doctors couldn't do anything to save him. This time was no different, but instead of allowing the memories to consume him he instead focused on getting Parker to the front desk.

"Help! I need help now. My fiancé has just been shot, and she's bleeding profusely. Someone get a doctor over here!" He started shouting. The nurse who had previously been reading a medical report paused and looked up, gasping at what she saw. Reaching for the phone she called for a gurney and doctor to come immediately.

"Alright sir help is on the way. Can you please calm down and tell me what happened?" She spoke as calmly as she could. She didn't need the man more worked up than what he already was.

"Yeah, yeah we were at the senator's party, when my fiancé here says she had to use the restroom. I didn't want her getting lost so I offered to go with her. Out of nowhere these men with guns came out of a door and before she could duck, the bullet was already lodged in her arm." He explained as he reached in to pull out the ID Eliot had stuck in Parker's pants.

As the gurney arrived and Parker was taken to an operating room, the nurse went back to her station to pull out a patient form for Nate to fill out. He decided now was the time to ask Hardison for their backround information,

"Alright Hardison what's our story?"

"You and Parker were at the senator's party for a business proposal. I already added your names to the invite list in case someone looks. Speaking of names you are now Tony Davis, a private contractor for wealthy clients. Parker is Emily Peterson, you two met three years ago at the café she works in. You've been engaged for a month now." The Hacker replied through the earbud.

"Good job Hardison, now I need you to pull up all of Parker's existing medical records. She'll most likely need a blood transfusion and I don't know her blood type." He remained silent as he scanned the questions. More than half of which he didn't know.

"Alright Nate I got as much info as I could find, but there's not a lot. She's type AB, and was born August 24, 1978. That's about as much as I found besides reports for bruises and broken bones. No name or anything else."

"That's alright Hardison, I let you guys know when she's out of surgery." He sighed running his hand through his hair. He completed the form to the best of his ability and handed it to the nurse.

Going back to his seat he hung his head and waited. Now that all the adrenaline wore off he was left with the part he hated most; not knowing if the person is going to live or die. He couldn't think of Parker dying. It just wasn't possible that the Thief could be taken down like this. His heart clenched as he imagined her pale face and looked at his hands that were still covered in her blood.

…

Nate didn't know how long he waited. All that registered was the doctor coming towards him, holding a clipboard with a grim expression.

"Mr. Davis?" He asked.

Standing up Nate shook his hand. "How is she doing doctor…?"

"Stevens." He supplied. "Your fiancée is a very lucky woman. We were able to extract the bullet, and sew up the artery. We gave her a blood transfusion and have her on liquids to replace all the blood she lost. She's in ICU resting, but you may go and sit with her for a little while."

Nate followed Dr. Stevens to room 741, and stopped before entering the room. Waiting for the doctor to leave, he tried to collect his thoughts. All that ran through his mind was that she was alive. She was going to be okay. She was not dead.

He realized in that moment something he should have realized long ago. The missing piece of why his romance with Sophie never worked. Parker completed him like a puzzle. They were polar opposites, but they complemented each other. 'I love her,' he thought dazed. How had he not seen this? She always knew how to break the tension in a room, and keep him from dark thoughts. She saw the world in a different perspective more so than anyone he had ever met. Her skills were unparallel. She belonged there from the start; he'd just been too blind to see it.

He hadn't realized he had walked into Parker's room till her voice startled him from his thoughts.

"I love you too."

At his shocked expression she tried to shrug, but winced when her stitches pulled. Nate settled his hand in hers and gripped it to show her he was there for her.

"You have the same look on your face as I did when I realized I loved you." She continued nonchalantly, but refused to look at him.

"I...I don't honestly know what to say." He sighed, sitting down in the chair besides her mattress, never letting go of her hand. From his ear he heard Hardison say,

"Aw come on man, why does Nate and Eliot always get the girls. It's the age of the geeks and I'm still not getting any love."

Nate pulled out his earbud and instead focused on Parker. "I love you." And leaning over he pressed his lips gently over hers. Though it was more of a caress then an actual kiss.

Wanting more contact the Thief shifted trying to press her lips harder to his, but froze as pain shot through her arm. Grimacing she leaned back as a pout stole her face.

Laughing Nate stood up, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Don't worry we have time later to continue where we left off."

…

After that minor mishap the con was still successful. The cops arrived at Andrews' house where the Russian's were where Eliot had left them. Andrews himself was caught trying to smuggled the guns off his estate, and the victum got their job and donation money back thanks to Hardison's hacking skills.

Parker meanwhile got to spend the rest of her recovery in Nate's apartment, with him taking care of her. Loving every minute of their time together.


End file.
